This thread contains raw data and World Event discoveries made during the test series performed on 2/23/04. These tests were made in order to clear up the overwhelming amount of misinformation that exists both on this site and elsewhere on the internet. All information presented here will used in my upcoming Super Diablo guide.

8 tests were performed over a period of about 10 hours. A total of 726 sojs were sold to force Super Diablo to 'walk the earth' 8 times.

A link to the original testing thread, which contains play-by-play posts of the entire series can be found here .

Many screenshots were taken during the testing. They should be available for public viewing early next week. I will post in this thread as soon as they are on display.

Special thanks to dop_obo, Emuporium, luucifer (although you talk too much, bud), and IRC members at #DClone-West.

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Part 1: Soj Counts

The following points are true for all 8 tests:

a.) All tests were performed on USWest server .152 in various games.
b.) All sojs were sold in the same game for all tests. This game was a SC/NL game set on Normal difficulty.
c.) Margin of error for all figures: +/- 5.

Test #1.
Start: 4439
Walk: 4517 = 78 sojs sold

Test #2.
Start: 4518
Walk: 4594 = 76 sojs sold

Test #3.
Start: 4595
Walk: 4675 = 80 sojs sold

Test #4.
Start: 4676
Walk: 4750 = 74 sojs sold

Test #5.
Start: 4751
Walk: 4876 = 125 sojs sold

Test #6.
Start: 4877
Walk: 4974 = 97 sojs sold

Test #7.
Start: 4975
Walk: 5055 = 80 sojs sold

Test #8.
Start: 5056
Walk: 5172 = 116 sojs sold

Note: These numbers should be considered approximate. We ran into some unexpected problems when keeping track of our soj sales. It seems that:

a.) If sojs are sold very quickly, the counter will not display every sale. Thus, if sojs are sold quickly (say in groups of five every 15 seconds), the counter will skip individual sales and display a tally instead. Example: Current count is 2637. 5 sojs are sold rapidly. Instead of the counter displaying the sale for each soj (2638, 2639, 2640, ect.), it will skip directly ahead and display the total after all 5 are sold (from 2637 straight to 2642). In order to see each individual soj sale, you would have to sell them more slowly; say just 1 every 10 seconds or so.
b.) It seems that the final soj count, the one that causes Super Diablo to walk the earth, is not displayed. Apparantly, the final number is replaced with the "Diablo walks the earth" message. We were not expecting that discovery and thus were poorly prepared to deal with it. I am not 100% satisfied with this finding and will have to perform some more testing to clear it up.

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Part 2: Discoveries

1. Player Soj-selling triggers Diablo to walk the earth.

True. Each soj sale resulted in the counter updating simultaniously in all .152 games that we had running. After a certain number were sold (the final tally was different each time), Super Diablo walked in all hell difficulty .152 games. To verify that this was not simply a coincidence, we walked him 8 straight times. This point is no longer a theory folks, it's fact.

2. The World Event is IP-based.

True. Every game we had running was on .152. Every soj sold caused the counter to update simultaniously in every .152 game. Each counter update also displayed the exact same number in every .152 game (in other words, when the counter updated to 3654 in one .152 game, it updated to 3654 in every other .152 game at the same time). When the magic number was reached, Super Diablo walked simultaniously in all .152 hell games. This point is no longer just a theory either.

3. The World Event affects all game 'types' (SC/HC/L/NL) on the same IP.

True. This was proven by making various types of games during the testing and watching the procession of soj counts and walks. The 'type' of game you play does not matter as long as you are on an IP with active sellers. Super Diablo will walk provided you are in a Hell game.

However, I cannot confirm that this is true for D2C at this time. We were unable to acquire any Classic players to test with us.

4. Selling sojs on NL will cause Super Diablo to spawn on L or vice-versa.

True. Read #3.

5. Super Diablo can walk in all difficulties.

False. Super Diablo only walked in the Hell difficulty games we had running on .152. He did not spawn in any Normal or Nightmare games. However, the soj counts did display in all games in spite of difficulty; but when the magic number was reached, Super Diablo only walked the earth in the Hell games.

6. The World Event can be triggered twice on the same IP in rapid succession.

True. Or you can do it three times in a row, or four -- or as often as you want, provided you have plenty of sojs to sell. In our tests, we spawned Super Diablo 8 times in a row on .152, which we chose arbitrarily. This is a significant discovery for a couple reasons:

a.) It means the World Event is 100% player-driven. There isn't some game-master at Blizzard who presses a button and starts the countdown on whichever server he chooses. This in turn means ...
b.) Players who want to create a World Event do not have to sit around and wait for word that a certain IP is active. Provided they can organize enough sellers and generate enough sojs to trigger Super Diablo into spawning, they can arbitrarily choose to start it on whichever IP they want.

7. Super Diablo can walk twice in the same game.

False. He can walk twice on the same IP, but will not walk twice in one game. Once he has spawned in your game, he cannot make a second appearance there. However, if selling is still going on, the counts will continue to update. Obviously, even when the magic number is reached, he will not appear. A new game on the IP will be necessary if you want to fight him again.

8. There are other methods besides soj-selling that can trigger the World Event.

Unknown at this time. Based on what little Blizzard has revealed about the facts of the World Event, the answer to this would seem to be no. However, Blizzard has a well-established track record for being vague and sometimes even misleading in the information they tease us with, so you never know. Also, Blizzard could always decide to change the perimeters that trigger the World Event in a later patch. Keep your eyes peeled.

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Part 3: Miscellaneous Q&A

Q: Can you back back and resell a soj to increase the counter?

A: No. They disappear forever when they are sold. If they didn't there would be clones running around in every game 24/7.

Q: So ... if I don't have any sojs to sell, I'm screwed right?

A. Of course not. The World Event is IP-based. As long as you can make a Hell game on an IP with active selling going on, you can simply sit in it all by yourself and wait. If enough sojs are sold by players in other games on the IP you share with them, Super Diablo will walk in your game too. Few people will ever have the means to trade and sell sojs and if you cannot, don't feel ashamed or left out. This is a community-based event. A few can sell, everybody can benefit.

Q: What is the expiration date of an Annihilus left lying on the ground?

A: One hour, just like any other unique item.

Q: Will there be any more testing in the future?

A: I may do some more testing (albeit on a smaller scale) to clear up a few lingering questions that I have. It won't be for awhile though.

Q: Can you do your testing over on East/Europe/Asia realm?

A: Ummmmm, sure ... you bring the sojs and I'll do the testing then.

Q: Will there be a Super Diablo guide made available?

A: Yes, I'm busy working on it but it won't be ready for some time yet.

Q: YO! I hear you got like ... a BILLION annihilus'. Can I have one?

A: No, get your own you greedy @#$%*%!

Q: WTF?! What do you do with all of 'em then?

A: Feed them to Durf. POING!

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Whew, I'm so glad I finally got this data posted. Thanks everybody for being patient with me -- I've been pretty busy lately.

If anybody has any questions concerning the data I've presented herein, ask away. I will try to answer as promptly as I can. Please keep any questions relevant to the actual data (ie. don't ask about netstating or killing gear tips here).

Yay! It came together very nicely after all didn't it? Nice work, good job. Very nicely organised and it should be very helpful to all. There are some facts that surprised me, others that confirmed my thoughts.

This resource will be indespensible, i'll be sure to point all DClone related questions to this thread. Again, very good work, thank you sir.

Does something like using other monsters death area damage affect DC? (shenk/Blood Raven or the like)

Click to expand...

The area effect deaths for Shenk and Blood Raven used to work for cheesing through DC -- they were obvious bugs and were quietly patched on the realms at the same time as the FE damage bug. So no, it no longer works (I tested these quite a while ago).

Thank you very much for the compliments, Shadow, it is much appreciated.

Nice work Dredd!
One thing I wonder about is what determines the "start number" of sojs sold. Why do you never see "1 Stones of Jordan sold to merchants" (read: I have never seen anything lower than 15)? And how far up does the counter go? Is it reset at 9999 (I know nothing of computers, binary codes and such - but still I believe the counter starts from 1 after 9999).

:worship: DREDD, THANKS for all your hard work. It's great to see the facts dispalyed for the whole community to read. Maybe there won't be 100000 more DC posts, after your guide is complete. And thank you to all who helped Dredd.
I agree with the above poster. Are you going to give build/equipment/strategy help in your guide. I have managed to kill him fairly easily, but there are many who have never seen him, nor heard of easy ways to kill him. :yep:

One thing I wonder about is what determines the "start number" of sojs sold. Why do you never see "1 Stones of Jordan sold to merchants" (read: I have never seen anything lower than 15)? And how far up does the counter go? Is it reset at 9999 (I know nothing of computers, binary codes and such - but still I believe the counter starts from 1 after 9999).

Click to expand...

Awesome question, Fearox, but very difficult to answer unfortunately. The only way this could be tested would be to sell enough sojs to actually flip/reset the counter. That would take far more sojs than I could acquire all by myself -- and not too many other potential sellers seem too eager to help with such a test.

Like you, I suspect that the counter resets at 9999 -- what number the new counter would start at is a complete mystery to me -- it may or may not be 1. I have personally never seen a counter lower than 1000 or higher than 6000 or so. I would love the chance to flip it.

The counter, as you can see by the test data, does not reset after each DC spawning -- it continues to accumulate. In theory, this means you could eventually flip it. However, servers crash and reset on their own periodically -- and accumulated soj counts probably reset along with it.

Frenzied Bovine and dop_obo know quite a bit about how D2 servers function. Perhaps they will be able to answer your question better than I can.

Zenkat said:

Will there be a part of the guide about easy clone slaying?

Click to expand...

I will cover killing tactics/build choices/desirable mods as well as I possibly can. However, the guide, in it's current state, is already 50+ pages long and I am trying to keep it under 15-20. Any more than that and I would feel terribly guilty about wasting this site's bandwidth. I don't pay the bills here so I want to keep the guide as informative and brief as possible.

heh, I don't know how everyone lucks out with DC walking, when I get an IP I can never get on it...and DC has never spawned in any of my games despite me playing frequently...I guess I am just one really unlucky mofo.

I will cover killing tactics/build choices/desirable mods as well as I possibly can. However, the guide, in it's current state, is already 50+ pages long and I am trying to keep it under 15-20. Any more than that and I would feel terribly guilty about wasting this site's bandwidth. I don't pay the bills here so I want to keep the guide as informative and brief as possible.

Click to expand...

You could make it a .doc file and let others host it. As long as it's less than 6 MB I can host it; can't wait to see the bandwidth counter rise to numbers greater than 25 MB for once... :teeth:

good job Dredd!
thanks and we look forward to your report. I would be willing to help next time (if there is one to answer other questions as they come) and if we know ahead of time, we can gather more sojs for the cause!

One thing springs to mind: does it matter which merchant you sell the sojs to?

Click to expand...

Nope, but we've always been partial to Charsi. :lol:

d2 junkie said:

When can we do it again?

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As soon as we can scrape enough sojs together again. dop and I only have about 60 at the moment. I want to gather as many as humanly possible this time. Thanks to Fearox, I now want to flip that dang counter! I'm obcessed.

Oh and before anyone really starts wacking me...I thought it was apparent in the other threads that I was rooting for Dredd on this project, but just to make it absolutely clear...I think its a really really awesome job and you really managed to gather a sizable amount of data.

Seriously...if you wish to, I can host your guide in its full 50+ page glory regardless of size and bandwith usage.